NHRA tested wheel tethers at Gainesville, Fla., this week following Sunday’s Gatornationals finals. Drag Racing Online reported NHRA used a couple of devices for Top Fuel and Funny Cars, including one designed by veteran driver Jim Head.

The goal is to prevent a rear wheel from coming off after an accident and prevent a repeat of the Feb. 22 incident at Firebird Raceway of a runaway wheel that killed a spectator.

Neither rain, a slick straightaway or the samba prevented open-wheel fans from catching the Indy Racing season opener on television.

According to the sanctioning body, total viewership for the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 was 76 percent better than the 2009 opener and the 0.4 national household rating was the third-highest IRL race on Versus.

Maybe it was all that passing. Race organizers counted 95 passes in the 61-lap race, quite an extraordinary number for a street circuit.

Kurt Busch executed a better than average burnout in his drag racing debut at Gainesville, but his launch off the starting line was too much to overcome.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup driver, fresh off his victory at Atlanta, left on Wes Neely, 0.41 to 0.71 seconds, in a Super Gas eliminations race, but Neely’s 10.006 run was better than the 10.106 posted by Busch, who struggled off the starting line.

Busch’s reaction time certainly was better than Michael Waltrip when he started at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School.

“My reaction time was 3.4 seconds,” said Waltrip, in Gainesville to support fellow Napa driver Ron Capps. “It turned green and I said `OK, I can go now.’ I had to make sure I knew everything I had to do when I hit the gas because I knew it was all going to happen in a hurry.”

NASCAR has added another element to the final segment of the May 22 Sprint All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway: a mandatory four-tire pit stop.

The starting order for the last 10 laps of the $1 million shootout will be determined by who gets out of pit row the fastest.

If there wasn’t enough pressure on the teams before, there certainly is now.

One of the traditions at Bristol Motor Speedway, site of this week’s NASCAR doubleheader, has been for drivers to select their own musical introductions.